What are YOU doing about Afghanistan?
An Open Letter to Anti-War Activistsby Sonali Kolhatkarwww.dissidentvoice.org
April 8, 2004

“We’ve come to
think of Afghanistan … as a sort of a backwater, as old news. But the war is
still going on there. There’s the same pattern as in Iraq”

-­ Seymour Hersh
interview with Amy Davidson, 04/05/04.

Afghanistan
has been devastated by the US military and neglected by the antiwar
movement. I am writing to appeal antiwar activists to seriously incorporate
Afghanistan into their work.

The US’s war in
Afghanistan was clearly fought to maintain imperial credibility after the
9-11 attacks and to provide a stepping-stone to Iraq. And yet, I was
saddened that activists in the US and other countries did not rise up in
significant numbers to resist the Afghanistan war which began on October 7th
2001. While I was heartened with the rising up of millions against the Iraq
war in 2003, the situation in Afghanistan continued to be sidelined by
activists in the recent demonstrations against occupation on March 20th
2004.

It is much easier to
be against the blatantly illegal Iraq war, as so many high-profile political
figures are doing these days: there was no connection to Al Qaeda in Iraq
(prior to the war), no weapons of mass destruction, plenty of oily reasons,
plenty of lies from the Bush administration, and so on. But Afghanistan was
another situation. How could we argue that the US should not bomb a country
that was harboring terrorists who attacked innocent U.S. civilians? Perhaps
activists have avoided Afghanistan because of its obvious links to Al Qaeda
and the tempting promise by Bush to deliver freedom for the most oppressed
women in the world.

At the recent
high-profile 9-11 Commission hearings Democrats and Republicans played the
contest of "who was tougher on terrorism.” Unfortunately, this amounted to
proving who was capable of invading Afghanistan the earliest. No mention was
made of the devastating effects of the US bombing which resulted in the
deaths of many more innocent Afghans than innocent Americans on 9-11 (bombs
are still dropping and killing civilians). No mention was made of the use of
internationally condemned cluster bombs whose legacy is itself terrorist.
But most importantly, no mention was made of the US’s own role in creating
conditions for terrorism in Afghanistan over two decades ago, for which the
Afghan people have been paying dearly.

It is crucial for
antiwar activists to know the history of the US in Afghanistan ­ historical
parallels with today’s operations are striking and the consequences are
predictable and devastating. In the late 1970s, the US CIA began funding and
fueling extremist, misogynist factions in Afghanistan against a Soviet
invasion. Thousands of Arab and extremist religious fighters were imported
to the region to join the “jihad”, laying the groundwork for Al Qaeda and
Osama bin Laden’s legacy. After ten years of occupation, the Soviet Union
withdrew from Afghanistan while weapons and cash continued to flow from the
US to the “Mujahedeen” warriors into the early 1990s. The period that
followed was the bloodiest era in Afghanistan, during which tens of
thousands of Afghans were killed by the Mujahedeen with US supplied weapons
­ the Mujahedeen fought one another for power killing any civilians in their
path and raping women. In fact, the 1996 takeover by the Taliban was in part
easy because the Afghan population were desperately ready for a change in
their leadership. What the United States has done today in Afghanistan is
topple the hated Taliban and replace them with the equally hated and feared
Mujahedeen warlords of old who simply regrouped under the title of “Northern
Alliance”.

A recent
Pentagon-sanctioned report by Retired Army Colonel Hy Rothstein concluded
that the current U.S. war had given "warlordism, banditry and opium
production a new lease on life” and “imposed additional, avoidable
humanitarian and stability costs on Afghanistan”. The United States is
repeating its devastating tactics in Afghanistan and once more causing the
Afghan people great harm.

Under the US’s watch,
Afghanistan has once more reclaimed its title of the world’s largest drug
producer, responsible for 75 per cent of the world's opium and 80 per cent
of the heroin sold in Europe. The US is accusing the Taliban of using the
drug trade to finance their insurgency since being overthrown. But in fact
the US’s friends are the drug producers. Jack Blum, an expert in
International Finance Crime testified to the House of Representatives
recently saying, "The revenue of poppies is essential for the warlords
supporting the United States," in their fight against terrorism. Meanwhile,
US prosecutors are investigating the recently ousted Haitian President
Aristide’s connection to cocaine and touting a campaign of drug trafficking
as a reason why Haiti is better off without Aristide.

Afghan women in
particular are paying the greatest price for US policies. Their emancipation
was upheld as one reason for going to war but two years later, they are as
shackled by the same warlords and the same hunger and insecurity as they
were before and during the Taliban’s reign. For some women, particularly in
cities and villages outside the relatively safer Kabul, things are worse.
For example, tens of women in the Western Afghan province of Herat have been
committing suicide by self-immolation.

So what can antiwar
activists do?

Firstly, stay as
informed about the US’s role in Afghanistan as you can and demand the media
cover Afghanistan. As a member of the alternative media (Pacifica), I have
noticed more coverage in the mainstream media of Afghanistan than in the
alternative media: this is shameful. Demand coverage of Afghanistan from
your local community radio station, alternative political magazine, or
favorite online news source.

Secondly, look to
Afghans themselves for what they want for their country. For example, the
Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) who I work in
solidarity with and who are on the forefront of anti-fundamentalist and
anti-imperialist work, have been calling for a United Nations intervention
and peace keeping forces for years. They have asked sensibly, for the
disarmament of warlords who rule the countryside with impunity and foreign
backing. Today the government of Japan is funding a UN disarmament program
in Afghanistan. Antiwar activists can demand that the U.S. foot the bill for
the entire program ­ after all we will simply be disarming the very men we
armed who have inflicted terrorism on the Afghan people.

Thirdly, demand that
the U.S. spend proportionately as much on humanitarian aid in Afghanistan as
it does in other conflict situations. A RAND Corporation study revealed that
“Kosovo, for example, has a population of about 2 million, while Afghanistan
has a population of 23 million. But Kosovo received several times more
American and European assistance per capita to recover from 13 weeks of
conflict than Afghanistan has received to rebuild from 20 years of civil
war”. While Afghanistan and Iraq have roughly the same area and population,
in general, Afghanistan is decades behind Iraq in standards of living. For
example, life expectancy in Afghanistan is 47 years compared to Iraq’s 68
years. Literacy for men is nearly half as much in Afghanistan as in Iraq,
while women are 3 times less literate in Afghanistan than in Iraq. These
effects are directly linked to decades of US fueled war which has set Afghan
progress back by tens of years.

Fourthly, no matter
who is in power, remind them that you are watching their policies in
Afghanistan, just as you are watching their policies in Iraq, Palestine,
Haiti, Colombia, and everywhere else the US empire reigns. Demand that your
local antiwar group, or the large mobilizing groups you work with, include
Afghanistan in their literature and signs. Demand that every time an antiwar
rally is held, there are prominent speakers who address Afghanistan.

And finally, show
sensitivity and respect to the people of Afghanistan by not exploiting their
victim-hood. There are far too many books and movies depicting Afghans and
particularly Afghan women as mute, blue burka-clad figures who are helpless.
These images are convenient reminders of our superiority and do not empower
Afghans in their fight against the US’s war machine.

The Afghan people have
been used and betrayed by the United States too often. They are a brave
people with a history of anti-imperialism. But they are tired and they are
dying. And they are about to be used once more: during the November 2004
Presidential elections. With the embarrassment of Bush’s policies in Iraq,
Afghanistan will be held up as the success story of the “war on terror”.
Afghan elections, conveniently timed two months before Bush’s re-election
bid, will be a model for U.S.-sponsored democracy in the “Muslim world.”

US actions in
Afghanistan are not failures or mistakes, but crimes. Antiwar activists must
see through the veneer of “democracy” and “success” and judge Bush’s actions
in Afghanistan as what they are: criminal. They are the result of deliberate
policy crafted by the Bush administration, which is simply following in the
footsteps of Clinton (who first courted the Taliban in an effort to get a
pipeline deal and then bombed Afghanistan in), Bush Sr. (who allowed the
Mujahedeen to destroy Afghanistan with US-supplied weapons), Reagan (who
openly embraced the misogynist, fundamentalist Mujahedeen) and Carter (who
began the initial covert operations in the late 1970s).

Empire is being built
on the backs of Afghans and it is up to us as antiwar activists to recognize
it and address it.

Respectfully and in
solidarity,

Sonali Kolhatkar
Co-Director of Afghan Women’s Mission

Sonali Kolhatkar
is the host and co-producer of Uprising, a daily morning public affairs
program with KPFK, Pacifica Radio, in Los Angeles. She is also the
Co-Director of the Afghan Women's Mission, a US-based non-profit that works
in solidarity with Afghan women on humanitarian and political work. She can
be reached at:
sonali@afghanwomensmission.org